The multidimensional input device, U.S. Patent No. 20060250353, which was published in Nov. 9, 2006, is the most recent computer input device that provides positional information in three dimensions to the computer system, where said device is comprised of three sensors, where each sensor is comprised of two controls and each control is comprised of two buttons or two different positions to press on. When said multidimensional input device is used as a computer mouse, the user has 12 buttons or different positions to choose from, evenly distributed in three groups (on the left side, right side, and top side), each group allowing for four directions, and requiring the use of three fingers at all times.
There are many disadvantages in both function and form in said multidimensional input device, some of which are: using 12 buttons or positions to choose from in an input device such as a mouse to provide input to the computer system is very confusing to the user, relegating the mouse into a miniature keyboard; using three fingers simultaneously reduces the speed of user input especially in interactive applications such as games or virtual reality, where a fast response from the user is needed; the direction of moving the computer cursor or object on the computer screen is different from the direction of pressing the button on the mouse, making the movement counterintuitive; and said multidimensional input device uses only the Cartesian coordinate system where it is hard to navigate or move freely in three dimensions using such a system.
The proposed invention solves all the mentioned disadvantages of the previous art where this proposed invention utilizes 5 buttons instead of 12 buttons, requiring the use of one finger instead of 3 fingers, which accordingly facilitates and speeds the user's input to the computer system. The arrangements of the five buttons in this invention matches the intuitive movement or rotation on/about the x, y, z-axis of the Cartesian coordinates system to eliminate any confusion between the user's finger moving or rotating on the proposed device and the cursor's or object's corresponding movement or rotation on the computer display. Moreover, the proposed invention introduces a new method to utilize the spherical coordinate system, the polar coordinate system, the cylindrical coordinate system, and the Cartesian coordinate system to be used with this proposed invention in a simple and innovative technique.